Ten Facts

1. The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with The Institute of Cancer Research, is the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe.

2. The Royal Marsden has regularly achieved the highest possible rating in the Healthcare Commission’s Annual Health Check. In 2008, 42 Trusts received double-excellent, but we were the only Trust in the UK to achieve double-excellent for the third year in a row.

3. The Trust was one of the first hospitals to be awarded NHS Foundation Trust status in April 2004.

4. The Royal Marsden, in association with the Institute of Cancer Research, has discovered or developed more anti-cancer drugs than any other academic research institute in the world.

5. Together with our academic partner The Institute of Cancer Research, we are the UK’s only designated Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer – awarded in December 2006 by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

6. Our new Drug Development Centre was rated double outstanding by CRUK, the leading independent cancer research organisation.

7. We publish The Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Practice, the best-selling nursing textbook in the world.

8. The Healthcare Commission's Inpatient Survey 2007 showed that The Royal Marsden exceeded expectations in every key area; 94% of patients who responded said they received either excellent or very good care while inpatients at The Royal Marsden (the national average was 77%).

9. We were named as one of the six centres of excellence in the UK in the NHS Plan, published by the Department of Health in 2000.

10. The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign has raised more than £45 million since 2004.